Pages

Jun 6, 2011

Bug Bites and Bee Stings

Sport got bit by a spider on Saturday. For most people, that would be no big deal. But I don’t know what it is with Sport. Every time he gets stung by anything, it’s a big huge hairy deal. Last summer he got stung by a hornet. He came running in, tears and snot streaming down his face. The area on his arm had already started to swell. I grabbed the box of baking soda, mixed it with a little water and slathered the paste on his wound. He was still screaming and bawling, something about never going in the backyard again.

I scraped off the layer of paste and applied a second one. He would not be consoled. I blew on the paste to make it dry faster and then scraped and applied again. After about half an hour of this, he gradually calmed down. A red mark the size of a quarter was all that remained near his elbow. I sent him back out to play. After he showered and was ready for bed I checked it again and he was fine.

By noon the next day, his arm started to swell. (I found out later that delayed reactions are common with hornet stings.) By the following morning the angry red hard skin stretched from his wrist nearly to his shoulder and almost all the way around. I called the doctor and made an appointment. She sent us straight up to Primary Children’s Medical Center.

Sport's Arm

They checked us in and started IV antibiotics. They also informed us to get comfortable; we would be spending the night. PCMC has amazing food! Sport was so excited to order from room service because you can order anything and as much and as often as you like. We also asked them for craft items and we received a dozen different fun things for him to work on. He made a couple of beadie animals that he is very proud of. This was cool because my Girl Scout troop made little craft kits for PCMC as a service project the year before, that's why we knew they had them. (I’m not totally mean; I did let him watch a little TV.) We were released the next day after the swelling was definitely beginning to shrink. He was given oral antibiotics, but it still took several days before he could use his arm normally.

So this morning when I noticed the swelling on this new bite I was not happy. We went about our normal activities, attended church, threw a birthday party for one of the Gym Rat’s closest friends, and made a million chicken chimis and a huge German chocolate cake. Bossy and Gamer also rolled about 60 tamales.

Tonight when things finally settled down, we looked at Sport’s arm again. It had grown to about six inches long and four inches across. He forced down the Benadryl and some ibuprofen. I’m not looking forward to another night at the hospital…I’ll keep you posted.